GNP GUIA NAGHI & PARTNERS

Address: 48 Soseaua Nicolae Titulescu, 2nd Floor, 1st District, Bucharest, Romania
E-mail: [email protected]
Web: www.gnp.ro
Most senior representative: Manuela Guia, Managing Partner
No. of local partners: 3
No. of lawyers: 20
Offices in Romania: Bucharest
Representative clients include: Main RO marketplace, Mega Image - Delhaize Group, Clever Tech - Daimler Group, Idea Leasing, Major Pharmaceutical Company, Major insurance company, Main RO company in the forestry sector, CIS Gaz, Roche Romania, Major RO Telecom company.

Partners and heads of practice

Manuela Guia, Managing Partner

Manuela combines in-depth knowledge of RO and EU law with a vast legal expertise and business acumen, having represented top multinational and local corporations in the private sectors of Pharma and Health Care, IT & Telecom, Electronics, Retail, Energy, Media and Entertainment, as well as public sector clients.

Bianca Naghi, Partner

Bianca is a specialist in competition law, data protection, corporate law, intellectual property and contract law, and represented some of the most important multinational and local corporations in the sectors of food retail, electronics, energy, IT & Telecom and also in the public sector.

Octavian Adam, Partner

Octavian represented private and public major clients from different industries in a wide variety of high-profile litigation and arbitration cases. He successfully acted for major companies in procedures of award of public contracts both in the administrative phase, as well as in front of courts of law.

Otilia Vilcu, Managing Associate

Otilia joined GNP as coordinator of the competition practice and oversees the team for all the competition and State Aid projects of our law firm (currently assists 17 clients in antitrust investigations, alone). Otilia has succeeded in record time to obtain significant results for the GNP competition practice.

List of the most representative projects

Corporate and M&A

Legal advice and assistance for Clever Tech, part of Daimler Group, related to various amendments of the company’s Articles of Association, such as for the revocation of some of its directors, certain increases of company’s share capital and ultimately successfully registration of such amendments to the relevant Trade Registry office.

The law firm assisted OLX Online Services in connection with various amendments of the company’s Articles of Association, such as for the revocation of some of its directors, appointment of others, formalities such as real beneficiary statement, etc. The firm assisted the client also with various corporate matters, consisting in negotiations and drafting the necessary documents and registration with the Trade Registry.

The firm offered legal assistance to Cis Gaz, an important gas and energy provider present on the Romanian market, in connection with an important restructuration within its group of companies, project which involves multiple formalities before Trade Registry, corporate amendments and registration before Trade Registry.

Legal assistance to Neomobility related to day-to-day amendments of the company’s Articles of Association, such as share capital increases, appointment of new shareholder, as well as performing all formalities before Trade Registry. The firm assisted the client also with various corporate matters, consisting in negotiations and drafting the necessary documents and registration with the Trade Registry.

Specialist lawyers: Bianca Naghi, Roxana Barica.



Competition

Assisting Idea Leasing and Raiffeisen Leasing in two investigations by the Competition Council in two alleged anti-competitive behavior through exchange of sensitive information facilitated by the industry association. Following an unprecedented situation of two sets of hearings in this case (as a result of a procedural mishap) the firm's lawyers succeeded in convincing the RCC Plenum that the Statement of Objections issued by the investigation team needs to be re-evaluated. The firm is also assisting Idea Leasing with challenging before the courts of law the guidelines of the RCC on the individualization of fines. The investigation is on-going

The law firm provided legal assistance and advice for main operators on the timber procurement market in Romania in connection with the ongoing investigation launched by the Competition Council on the Romanian timber procurement markets. Secondly, the team also assisted and advised several companies in this industry in connection with various competition matters related to their procurement and sale policy in the forestry activity in Romania and world-wide. The law firm is involved in implementing these company’s competition compliance programs, holding various trainings for the relevant suppliers and taking part in the public events designed for overall compliance at industry level.

As a preferred law firm for Mega Image, the law firm is providing day to day legal assistance and representation in various competition related matters, including assistance before the Competition Council, compliance programs and strategies, as well as contract and policy reviews, structuring and implementing thorough competition training program with dedicated sessions for all company’s departments, pertaining either to general antitrust assessments or liaising with the competition authority or assistance and representation regarding lodging of complaints for unfair competition. The law firm is also providing legal assistance in specific pilot projects and we are organizing various forms of proactive compliance for the relevant departments of Mega Image. The team represented the company before various institutions, and they argued the anticompetitive effects of some behaviors that other competitors or suppliers had regarding the company.

The law firm is the main contact for competition matters for Toneli and Super Eggs and is involved in all aspects concerning this area of law and is currently providing assistance in relation to a Competition Council launched investigation based on a preliminary assessment of the production and marketing of eggs. Since in 2017 Romania faced a significant rise in egg prices, the competent authorities, among which the Ministry for Agriculture and the Romanian Competition Council, started their own assessments of the reasons for such price increases. Currently, the firm's competition team is assisting the most important egg producers in Romania in relation to the RCC investigation into potential anticompetitive agreements and/or coordination among the main players on the market.

The firm is currently assisting Food and Beverages Management as well as Other Major Player on the market in connection to an antitrust investigation carried out by the national competition authority and which was launched ex officio by Competition Council concerning an alleged infringement of art. 5 para. (1) of Competition Law on the market for commercialization of food products and beverages in Romania in the restaurants and cafe units located on the premises of Bucharest Airport, having its alleged object the fixing of the final prices. The investigation is now ongoing and on the table of the investigation team, pending finalization of analysis by the authority.

Specialist lawyers: Manuela Guia, Bianca Naghi, Otilia Vilcu.



Real Estate

Advising Mega Image on the transaction having as subject matter the lease and possible acquisition of a plot of land, in the city center of Oradea municipality, for the purpose of erecting a commercial premise with an area of 1,200 sqm. The client concluded a unilateral promise to sell agreement and a lease agreement having, at a certain point in time, the option to buy the commercial premise. The firm has reviewed the ownership documents and has prepared the legal due diligence report and has prepared and negotiated the unilateral promise to sell and the lease agreement.

Advising Mega Image on the transaction having as subject matter the lease and possible acquisition of a plot of land in the city center of Timisoara municipality, for the purpose of erecting a commercial premise with an area of 1,000 sqm. The client concluded a unilateral promise to sell agreement and a lease agreement having, at a certain point in time, the option to buy the commercial premise. The firm has reviewed the ownership documents and has prepared the legal due diligence report and has prepared the unilateral promise to sell and the lease agreement drafts.

Advising Mega Image on the transaction having as subject matter the lease of a commercial premise, with an area of approx. 500 sqm in the city center of Oradea municipality, for a period of 15 years. The law firm has reviewed the ownership documents, has prepared the legal due diligence report and has prepared and negotiated with the landlord the lease agreement.

Advising Mega Image on the transaction having as subject matter the lease of a commercial premise, with an area of approx. 2,200 sqm, in the northern part of Bucharest, for a period of 25 years, expected to the become operational in the first quarter of 2021. The law firm has reviewed the ownership documents, has prepared the legal due diligence report and has prepared and negotiated with the landlord the lease agreement draft.

Advising Mega Image on the transaction having as subject matter the construction of a logistic warehouse having a gross footprint of approx. 40,000 sqm. The construction contract was a RED FIDIC and the firm has drafted the Special provisions, amending the General Conditions, together with all the documents composing the contract. The law firm has also provided assistance with the clarifications required by the attendees to the tender process organized by the Client for awarding this Contract.

Specialist lawyer: Bianca Naghi.



Litigation and Dispute Resolution

The firm is the preferred law firm for all litigation cases by Euroins Romania Asigurare - Reasigurare. Aside from the current disputes arising out of insurance claims, regulatory, employment, EU law solvency requirements, the team successfully assisted the company before the courts of law with respect to the suspension of a sanctioning decision issued by the supervisory authority withdrawing the approval of its general director. The project involved a comprehensive approach related to solvency, actuarial practices and procedural matters.

The firm assists a major marketplace in connection to several claims against one of its main competitors related to unfair and discriminatory practices, misleading and comparative advertising and civil rights violation. The team successfully obtained the award of provisional measures regarding the suspension of the unfair practices conducted via online streaming and social media platforms.

The team was one on the first law firms to obtain, for its client, Forestar, the annulment of the enforcement against an undertaking sanctioned by the Competition Council, after paying half of the minimum amount of the fine provided by the law and not the amount applied by the Competition Council, due to a legislative reform generally applicable to all misdemeanor fines. The law firm successfully managed to obtain the dismissal of the competition authority successive requests to submit a non-constitutionality plea, a request for a preliminary ruling before ECJ or the High Court of Justice, by arguing the clarity of the legal provisions and the general applicability thereof. The case file is currently pending before the courts of law and the firm's lawyers are actively involved by means of amicus curie in proceedings related to the unitary interpretation of the legal provisions applicable to the case at hand.

Represents one of the major pharmaceutical companies with respect to challenging the sanctioning decisions issued by the Competition Council. The project is currently pending before the courts of law and requires a multidisciplinary approach from various field of law (competition, pharma, etc.).

Assists two of the main providers of port services in disputes arising out of the infringement of the right to conduct their activities because of the abusive behavior of the local competent authority. The assistance includes challenging the normative deeds issued by the latter. In addition, the firm's team also represents one of the companies within a private damages file requesting the coverage of financial harm amounting to €3 million due to the anticompetitive barriers to enter the market. The case files are currently pending before the courts of law.

Specialist lawyers: Manuela Guia, Octavian Adam, Bianca Naghi, Tudor Nacev, Violeta Geru, Otilia Vilcu.



PPP Public Procurement

Legal assistance for a major company in the forestry sector on developing internal policies are rules to be implemented by the acquisition departments regarding participation to public tenders for acquiring timber.

Legal assistance for a major pharmaceutical company on enforcement of a framework agreement on public procurement of National Immunization Program vaccines, as well as the subsequent contracts. The firm provided legal advice on the interpreting of contractual provisions in order to ensure compliance of all actions with the legal framework.

We provided advice and legal opinions for a major Romanian vertically integrated company active in the pharma sector on matters relating to the applicability of the provisions in public procurement matters.

We provided services for a major Association of public interest consisting in consultancy regarding the management of the Association 's funding sources. Also, the team analyzed the contracts concluded by the Association with different partners from the perspective of the rules applicable to public procurement.

Specialist lawyers: Manuela Guia, Bianca Naghi, Tudor Nacev.



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